[GSBN] earthen floor sealer in Haiti

[tina therrien]

Hi guys. I am leaning towards trying some blood for the sealer of the  
earth floor in our straw house, at least for part of it- does anyone  
have an actual old-time recipe? I don't have any of my old school  
plaster books here- if you can help me along, I'd appreciate it!

thx,
tina

On 16-Mar-11, at 10:10 AM, MARK SCHUENEMAN wrote:

> Greetings All,
>
> Has anyone noticed any adverse or positive effects of oils applied  
> to floors with additives in the mix...such as casein, dung, blood,  
> wheat paste, whatever? And, I would guess that warming the oil,  
> whatever oil, would help the penetration. Heating it to too high of  
> a temp may not be recommended. I have some cob window sills that  
> look beautiful but they need a sealer to be most effective. All of  
> this chatter (I say with all due respect) has helped me with my  
> future experimentation with finishing these sills. I look forward to  
> hearing how the Haiti project turns out. Thanks all.
>
> Gratefully,
> Mark Schueneman
> Colorado Straw Bale Association
>
>
>
> From: graeme at ecodesign.co.nz
> Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:11:58 +1300
> To: GSBN at greenbuilder.com
> Subject: Re: [GSBN] earthen floor sealer in Haiti
>
>
>
> Hi there Tina
>
> My painting  genius friend has offered to carry out some trials with  
> various oils on unfired clay tiles to help with sorting this out -  
> so any pointers to readily available oils over there  would be very  
> welcome I am sure
>
>
>
> cheers
>
>
> Graeme
> Graeme North Architects
> 49 Matthew Road
> RD1
> Warkworth
> tel/fax +64 (0)9 4259305
>
> graeme at ecodesign.co.nz
> www.ecodesign.co.nz
>
>
> On 15/03/2011, at 11:43 AM, tina therrien wrote:
>
> Thanks for all of your suggestions & input for the sealer- Jean  
> Louis, one of our Haitian builders, is going to try to procure  
> coconut oil from the market, which we'll test, although he just  
> arrived, and as with many materials here, the coconut oil is proving  
> more difficult and expensive to find than originally anticipated.   
> If we do the finish floor today or tomorrow, there should be enough  
> time for it to cure by Saturday. Apparently they slaughter a cow  
> just down the laneway every Saturday, so we may even be able to use  
> some cow blood to seal the floor.
>
> I have found reference to molasses before in terms of finishes, and  
> am now even more curious about it, but don't think we'll have time  
> to try it out here, at least not for this project.
>
> Any other tips for earthen floors, either finish coat or for  
> sealing, are welcome. I'll stay in close touch with Andy Mueller  
> regarding the floor- I know he wishes he was here to work on it!  
> Pics to come.
>
> In reply to André (and hi, André, by the by!), the BWB website has a  
> page about this project- both a blog and a photo gallery (http://www.builderswithoutborders.org/ 
> ) Apart from that, both Andy Mueller & I have blogs. My personal  
> blog is about various natural building projects I'm involved with  
> here, and personal impressions of being in Haiti...certainly not all  
> about building, but there are a few segments dedicated to building  
> (including compressed earth block, earth bag, and soon to be light  
> clay/straw if all goes well). http://strawhomes.blogspot.com/  
> (you'll have to skim through to find building photos & stories).
>
> tina
>
>
>
> Camel's Back Construction
> Quality, handcrafted homes
> www.strawhomes.ca
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> GSBN mailing list
> GSBN at greenbuilder.com
> http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN
>
>
> _______________________________________________ GSBN mailing list GSBN at greenbuilder.com 
>  http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN_______________________________________________
> GSBN mailing list
> GSBN at greenbuilder.com
> http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN

Camel's Back Construction
Quality, handcrafted homes
www.strawhomes.ca





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sustainablesources.com/pipermail/gsbn/attachments/20110317/32b44e8f/attachment.htm>